Chapter 16 - Committees
Conflict
of interest
Standing order 27(5) provides that
a senator shall not sit on a committee if the senator has a conflict of
interest in relation to the inquiry of the committee. This standing order was
the subject of a statement by President Beahan on 24 February 1994 (SD, 24/2/1994, pp 1036-7). It
had been suggested that a senator had a conflict of interest because he had
written newspaper articles critical of a committee of which he was a member,
without identifying himself as such. The President indicated that the standing
order applies to a situation in which a senator has a private interest in the
subject of the committee’s inquiry which conflicts with the duty of the senator
to participate conscientiously in the conduct of the inquiry, an example being
a senator holding shares in a company, the activities of which are under
inquiry. There is no precedent of the Senate enforcing this rule by removing a
chair or member of a committee, or disagreeing with an appointment.
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